Jordan Ridge students create name for themselves

Jordan Ridge sixth-grade students have excelled in several academic activities, creating a name for themselves and for their school. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

By Julie Slama |
julie@mycityjournals.com

If you look at
an extracurricular activity here and there, Jordan Ridge Elementary students
have done well, but when you take a group of them, Principal Cathie Anderson
said, they’re creating names for themselves and for the school.

“When we look
at storytelling, geography bee, spelling bee, science fair, debate and math
tournaments, there is a group of kids who are excelling,” Anderson said.

The group she
is referring to includes sixth-graders Kyle Anderson, Michael Pond, Andrew
Shackelford, Nethra Suresh and Natalie Swain.

Andrew has been
one of his school’s storytellers chosen for Jordan School District’s Story Weavers
storytelling showcase the past two years. Last year, he was invited to tell
stories at the Utah Storytelling Guild’s event, Story Crosswords.

“I’ve already
picked out stories I plan to share this year,” he said. Recently Andrew spent
his time teaming up with Nethra to earn first place the state debate
tournament.

The duo argued
for the negative team with the topic, “Resolved: In the United States the
benefits of compulsory national service outweigh the harms.”

“We argued that
it would take away time from a person’s free will to get an education, and it
would affect the economy,” Andrew said.

At the same
time, Andrew was working on his science fair project that would take first place
at the Central Utah STEM fair at Brigham Young University.

In his project, Andrew explored peripheral vision
with his project entitled, “As far as the eye can see.” He received an
invitation to apply to the national Broadcom Masters competition.

He wasn’t alone. Natalie’s project, “Moving to the
Music,” Michael’s project, “Slip Slidin’ Away: Optimizing the Coefficient of
Static Friction between Shoes” and Kyle’s project, “Sugar: Why It's Not So
Sweet” also earned them invitations. These three also were named fair grand
champions of their categories.

Natalie’s project in the life sciences division
pondered the question if music played in between class periods can result in tardiness.

“My sister would say that students seemed to walk to
the beat of the music in the halls,” she said after comparing data she
collected at South Jordan Middle School. “My hypothesis was proven correct: When
the school plays slow music, students walked slower, resulting in more
tardies.”

Natalie also participated at the state debate
tournament on the affirmative side, bringing home a speaker medal.

Her classmate, Michael, who received a top speaker
award at the district debate tournament, tested which material would work best
to adhere to street shoes to prevent slipping on ice through his science fair
project. He looked at several common materials from shag carpet to artificial
turf to different grains of sand paper before discovering 1,000-grain sand
paper worked the best.

“I looked at each material under a microscope before
I concluded which materials interacted with each other to cause the best grip,”
he said.

Michael also recently won first place from 325
students competing at the Daybreak Elementary’s seventh annual math tournament.
The 4.5-hour math tournament involves solving about 25 challenging math
problems on a variety of math topics.

“I won it in fourth grade, got edged out last year
and had to win in a second tie-breaker this year, even though I aced the test,”
he said.

Classmate Nethra had to win her six-way tie-breaker
to finish third in the tournament that had 26 public and private schools
participate.

“I used a shortcut method that was more like algebra,
so I’d be the fastest person who got the correct answer,” said Nethra, who also
is planning on participating in Story Weavers, as is Michael, this spring.

Before the math tournament, she had won the school
spelling bee and earned a bid to compete in the Scripts-sponsored state bee. At
state, Nethra advanced several rounds over six hours before tying for fifth
place out of 157 competitors. She lost on the word “subcutaneous,” placing a ‘q’
in place of the ‘c.’

“I had learned all 1,150 words, and it was
interesting to learn some words that I’ll probably never use, but to look at
the words’ origins and spellings,” she said. “With some, I’ll use in my daily
life to better explain things because when you can communicate better, your
life is better.”

Kyle excelled
at the geography bee, first winning his school bee to be extended the
opportunity to take an online written test for a chance to compete in the state
tournament, which is sponsored by the National Geographic Society. After doing
well on the written test, Kyle competed at the state preliminary round, getting
a perfect score.

“I studied
casually on my own online, taking daily quizzes and using atlases and geography
resources and maps to learn more,” he said.

Kyle eventually
lost on questions that asked about a unique marine species found in the outer
banks of North Carolina and about which countries border Hungary.

“I like to
travel, so this is a way I can see pictures of other cultures and learn more
about countries,” he said. “It’s a way I can challenge myself and have fun.”